Monday, October 12, 2009

Afraid to paint, at the moment

I'm currently taking Mark Mitchell's free color course. The problem is, I haven't gotten to the meat of the course yet (which thanks to Vicky, I know is coming) and now I notice a fear of painting anything because I might learn something in tomorrow's lesson which might keep me from screwing this up today! It's irrational, I know. That's why I'm going to actually finish this portrait today! It took me about 5 minutes to sketch this. About ten minutes to get up the nerve to put the background color in. Then I stopped. I figured that I had shown enough bravery for one day. LOL The photo is from morguefile again. Free use section, here.


And this is a lesson on negative painting by Sterling Edwards on the Jerry's Artarama site. Only, I didn't follow directions. I'm a rebel (family can stop laughing now) and did it the way I wanted to do it. (Mostly because I was too lazy to do it the right way!)

12 comments:

  1. I think she looks kind of cool just like that! I like it as is. But I do understand being afraid to paint. But anyday now another amazing piece of art will emerge from your talented hands!

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  2. I completely understand the fear! BUT, I also know that if I do a sketch/painting several times, it gets better each time. So, go ahead, make mistakes on this one and if you get further knowledge on it later, then come back to it. I think it is a lovely drawing and I really like the background. (oh, and you can still be a rebel - no one can take that away from you - LOL).

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  3. I agree with Ellen, it's beautiful like that, but I can't deny the fact that it has so much more potential too because I know that if you paint it all the way, the result is always awesome.
    I am not inspired by anything to draw at the moment, so I am looking around by watching movies.

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  4. Strong portrait, strong background - free the rebel in you and regain advantage over her. Turn her upside down, look at her in a mirror, put her away for a month...or just go at her thinking design and color rather than this is a nose or an eye. It will be very interesting to see what you choose.

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  5. It looks - they both look lovely the way they are!! And the negative painting looks awesome.. Your paintings teach me that there are really no rules for painting! They look so so good!

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  6. Good beginning on the portrait. I'm also taking his course and waiting for the "meat" of the stuff to come in.

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  7. I love the purple forest, and can't wait until you can finish the portrait. It looks lovely even unfinished.

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  8. Looks good to me! Can't wait to see the finished product.

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  9. I was over here the other day, but something came up and I couldn't comment. I think the pencil drawing in no. 1 is great. I have a book that has an exercise like your 2nd one, and I'll be trying it one of these days - confused the heck out of me when I read it through the first time. I am excited about your new set. I am have a new book about color, Exploring Color by Nita Leland, and it is recommending that I purchase loads of high quality colors (that I don't have) to do the exercises. So I'll probably be following suit again. I always follow the rebels (your family is laughing again).

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  10. Oooh Raena, I love the portrait! Just as it is although I am curiuos to see what it will look like painted. And I also love morguefile.com!

    Did you use the kuru toga pencil on this drawing? Thank you for that suggestion btw...I'll go check them out!

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  11. Nice work Reana. I get that feeling too where you are afraid of messing something up (actually I'm lazy too - and the "hard" parts of a work have to be "well" thought out). But - go for it and let it fly. Based on these two you can't miss.

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